Live at HIMSS 13: Prepare for Some of the Most Important Conversations of the Year

It’s that time of year again – time for healthcare IT professionals from around the world to gather together and discuss the most important issues facing healthcare. It’s time for HIMSS 2013.

Starting tomorrow, I’m sure the Morial Convention Center will be humming with the biggest issues of the week: Meaningful Use, the HIMSS EMR Adoption Model, the healthcare reform act, ICD-10 and so much more. The impact of just one of these is enough to keep CIOs and their teams up at night. Add them all together and it means healthcare organizations are being forced to evolve in a way that no other industry can imagine.

That’s why these conventions are so important. Sometimes the spectacle of HIMSS – the sheer magnitude of 20,000 IT professionals descending on a single place, the hundreds of vendors and two-story mega-booths, and the allure of one of the most notorious party towns in the world – overshadows the real HIMSS story. However, the truth behind all of the pomp and circumstance is that important conversations about significant topics happen constantly at HIMSS. HIMSS attendees move the healthcare industry forward and ultimately make healthcare more effective and more affordable around the world.

I, for one, can’t wait to listen and take part in them.

And to help make you be a part of them as well – whether you’re in New Orleans or even more so if you’re one of the thousands whose time and budget constraints kept you hard at work at home. I’ll be at HIMSS all week, offering my oberservations on our blog. Please feel free to enter the conversation by posting in our comments section or following our Twitter feed @HylandSoftware.

About Susan deCathelineau

Have you heard the buzz about "meaningful use" in healthcare? Not sure where ECM fits in? Hyland's healthcare solutions manager, Susan deCathelineau, MS, RHIA, can clear it up for you. She has more than 15 years of experience in healthcare technology, including time at a healthcare system, where she lead an EMR and ECM implementation. Susan can be reached at Susan.deCathelineau@onbase.com.